Match 5, July 3rd: Knight Riders V Warriors

Colin Munro became the first overseas player to make a Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) century as he played a remarkable lone hand that helped the Trinbago Knight Riders to reach a competitive score against the Guyana Amazon Warriors, but not a winning one.

Despite the New Zealander’s heroics the Knight Riders finished on the losing side as Australian Chris Lynn saw the Guyana franchise home as unlike in the Trinbago innings there were contributions by all the Amazon Warriors’ batsmen.

As well as it being the first ton by a non-West Indian it was also Munro’s highest score in T20 cricket, but the issue was no other Knight Rider could find a way to score freely. The level to which Munro dominated the Knight Riders innings was just remarkable, he struck 13 boundaries including six Hero Maximums, the rest of team found the ropes just three times.

When Munro came to the crease the circumstances could not have been more trying. Fellow New Zealander and Knight Riders’ marquee player Brendon McCullum had gone to the very first ball of the innings. A length delivery from Sohail Tanvir swung away from McCullum very slightly and it caught a thin edge through to the keeper. So Munro walked out to bat to face the second ball of the innings with no runs on the board.

This did not seem to put Munro under any real pressure as he plundered 16 runs from Paul Wintz’s first over, the second of the match. While every other Trinbago batsman struggled to time the ball on a Queen’s Park Oval surface that was a touch two-paced and was offering turn for the spinners. The next highest score of the innings was 18 by Dwayne Bravo, with only Darren Bravo and Kevon Cooper also making it into double figures.

There was something of a slowdown as Munro moved toward his hundred - the Knight Riders managed just three boundaries in the last five overs of their innings. They finished on 162 for 5 and they had Munro to thank for it. He made 100 runs from 65 balls, the rest of the team managed just 53 runs from the bat from 56 balls.

The Amazon Warriors got off to a flier in their chase of 163 to win, with Dwayne Smith looking to carry on from the 62 he made against the St Kitts & Nevis Patriots in his last match. He had made it to 26 when a superb Sunil Narine doosra pinned him lbw. When fellow opener Martin Guptill departed in the 10th over, bowled by a Nikita Miller ball that went on with the arm, there was huge pressure on Chris Lynn.

In the past Lynn has struggled on turning pitches against high class spin, but here he put those struggles behind him. He made 77 from 43 balls and struck an incredible eight Hero Maximums as he helped Guyana to victory, well supported by Jason Mohammed who finished on 33.